AI and space exploration: the age of adaptability

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quite a trendy topic these days, especially since Google Alphago’s victory over the world champion Lee Sedol has given a bright illustration of the potential of machine-learning. Today, everyone seems to focus on the conversational branch of AI (bots, like the ones we build at Recast.AI, or chatbots), but tons of other applications remain mostly unknown. This is why I’ve decided to dedicate this paper to a subject I’m passionate about: space exploration.

Indeed, it appears that AI can be an extraordinary boost to the discovery of our universe, for instance when it comes to navigation systems, situation analysis or even data transmission. So let’s try to anticipate some of the big chances that lie ahead! I’ve listed some of the most obvious, but if you want to go deeper into the matter, you can refer to Daniela Girimonte and Dario Izzo’s great paper on Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications or browse the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory webpage to check out the latest releases.

How can AI help us take a new leap in space exploration?

Transmitting data and analysing large quantities of it

Actually, space exploration already benefits hugely from AI. For instance, have you ever wondered how data is transmitted from one planet to another?

Until a few years ago, it used to be managed with a scheduling software operated by humans, but there were so many constantly changing variables such as the orientation of the spacecraft, the space-ground communication bandwidth, … that losing data, sometimes forever, happened all the time. Now, AI has been doing the job since 2005: the MEXAR2 system created by ESA is able to determine which data packets can be lost in case of memory conflicts, so that you never find yourself missing the most important piece of the puzzle.

There’s another key aspect when it comes to dealing with data collected in space: the sheer volume. A satellite like ESA’s ENVISAT produces 400 terabytes of data per year. If you want to process such a vast quantity of data the usual way, you might not even be able to use it before the next space exploration… this is why scientists have created a network of computers, each one of them receiving a small pack of data and processing it with AI, before regrouping all the pieces together.

Think 400 terabytes a year is a lot? Wait till the Square Kilometre Array telescope is working: it will be producing 720 terabytes a day! If we don’t invest a lot in AI programs capable of processing such amounts of data, the telescope will just be useless!

Saving time by giving more autonomy

One of the main difficulties when it comes to spacefaring is that – at least for now – many operations are still driven from earth. As most of you have probably seen Matt Damon’s Martian, let’s take the example of the red planet.

Depending on the relative positions of the planets, Earth is between 6,5 and 44 light-minutes away from Mars; I’ll let you imagine how long it can take to transmit one single message and wait for the instructions to come back. Of course, engineering teams are doing a great job anticipating every possibility and its appropriate response, but what if something unexpected happens? You can’t just rely on a message to be sent to Earth and come back with the answer you desperately and urgently need.

Consequently, the space industry will tend to look for more autonomy in the devices they use, which is where AI can be a powerful tool. For instance, we often use AI to detect and learn from patterns: in this case, you could apply these techniques to the analysis of sandstorms on Mars, in order to predict their evolution and adapt directly, without waiting for a command coming from Earth.

In short, a device called Philae was sent to land on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (nicknamed as “Tchouri”) in order to conduct a study. As you can imagine, landing on a fast-moving comet is not an easy task, and in that case it almost ended very badly: unfortunately, the comet’s gravity was slightly different from what it was supposed to be according to the preparatory calculations (with all the irregularities of the comet, a proper estimation of its gravity is particularly difficult).

The consequences were enormous: Philae hit the surface of Tchouri too strongly, bounced twice before eventually touching the ground (as a comparison, gravity on Tchouri is about one ten-thousandth of that on Earth). At the end of the day, on top on the damages caused by the shock, Philae found it had landed very uncomfortably on a 30% slope. As a result, some of the samples it was supposed to collect could not be harvested, and it was stuck in a part of the comet where it did not have enough sunlight to operate: only 1h30 every 12 hours. This reduced Philae’s autonomy, and also its ability to communicate with its bigger sister Rosetta, orbiting 200 kms above Tchouri.

We can very well imagine how AI could plug into space missions like Rosetta: by introducing a part of adaptability to the calculations and processes defined on Earth, based on what the spacecraft could directly observe. These things may seem obvious to you, but you need to know that most of the currently flying satellites are built on technologies more than 20 years old…

In order to foster the evolution of embedded systems, the NASA currently sponsors an application framework called ASPEN and based on AI techniques that can shelter different planning and scheduling applications, through a set of reusable software components that implement the elements commonly found in complex planning/scheduling systems, including: an expressive modeling language, a resource management system, a temporal reasoning system, and a graphical interface.

Conclusion: the age of adaptability

Thanks to AI, the time when an organization would dedicate millions – even sometimes billions – of dollars for a system that couldn’t evolve during its use is over. NASA already relies on unmanned spacecrafts and devices to explore the farthest space. Even Elon Musk, who wants to inhabit Mars, has defined AI as probably the “biggest threat” to humanity, but will have to resort to it in order to fulfill his dreams. So whether you like it or not, until we find another and better solution, you’ll have to make do with AI for a while…

Yes, Remi: the 21st Century Renaissance is transforming our lives and I’ve had the pleasure to see all the changes since Russia sent the first satellite into orbit, and the USA put men on the moon! Now we have all sorts of Star Trek technology connecting the impoverished in Africa and Asia, social mores are transformed, and AIs are more like personal assistants than the robots Isaac Asimov envisioned!….